The Marines of '61

To support the advance into Virginia, the Navy Department assigned a battalion of U.S. Marines to temporary field service with Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell's Union army. Marine Commandant Col. John Harris had misgivings about the force's inexperience, because most of the 350 Marines training at the Marine Barracks in Washington, D.C. were raw recruits with less than three weeks' service. During the fight for Henry Hill, under Maj. John B. Reynolds, the Marines supported the batteries of Captains Charles Griffin and James Ricketts and endured heavy fire from Confederate artillery that forced them to the ground for protection. As Union troops fell back in disorder, the Marines regrouped near the Stone House and joined two later attempts to retake the plateau, but both attacks failed. Even so, their conduct at First Manassas won praise from Union and Confederate soldiers alike. 2nd Lt. Robert E. Hitchcock, struck down by Confederate artillery fire on Henry Hill, became the first Marine Corps officer killed in the Civil War.

Sudley, Virginia · United States